Chapter 44

Loyd finished his debriefing with Jim and Griffon and went to see how the construction efforts were going with the dust storm still raging outside. The Geodites were causing the sand from the desiccated Earth they had landed on, to spiral around the convoy, giving the appearance that they were in the eye of a sandy hurricane that made one of Mars' storms laughable.

Several of the swarm creatures in the area had survived the kinetic bombardment and the subsequent dust storm due to their heavily reinforced hides and thickly armored carapaces. A few of their bodies were being dragged out of the storm by the other pilots who hadn't been pulled into the other dimension with Loyd.

Several new swarm-type CTAS were being produced while the excavator was pieced together from the various metal components and ingots that had been brought from Mars.

A burst of sand made it through the cyclone barrier as a smaller swarmling came charging out of it towards a group of younglings. Its face was completely covered in armor plating.

Loyd watched as it got closer, while a group of the younglings scrambled over to a weapons rack and armed themselves. The creature continued to get closer as the younglings opened fire on it, to no effect. Charging through the group, it punched a hole in one of the support structures of a bucket arm as it dove for cover from the hail of bullets.

One of the new swarm-type CTAS stood up before it had completely grown one of its arms and charged the swarmling as it prepared to charge again. It reached over the cover the swarmling was using and threw the swarmling into the air and over towards Loyd whom no one had noticed yet.

The swarmling screamed as it flew through the air, unfolding flaps of skin that were between its legs and coming down far more gently than had been intended. Its back was still to Loyd at this point and it seemed as though it was going to retreat from its posture.

Loyd smiled, taking off his air mask and started walking up behind the cow-sized monster. He slowly made his way up to the swarmling as it tried to inch away from the swarm-type CTAS, whose hand was a bloody mess. Loyd jumped atop the creature. surprising it and used its armor plating to swing himself around in front of it where he used all of his weight and momentum to smash into the creature's eye.

The swarmling let a short shriek as it crumpled to the ground, brain matter leaking out of its eye socket. Loyd had used its own eye to break through its nonexistent skull, thanks to its carapace design. The blow to the eye had liquified it, but it had survived long enough for the killing blow.

"MASTER!" one of the younglings shouted as he ran over to Loyd with his gun strapped to his back. "That was awesome! But how did you know that would work?" he asked.

"I used simple reasoning. The eye has a lot of neural impulses that would be hard to transmit over a longer distance and that would cause the creature to have a reaction speed delay. Thus, its eye must be located near the brain and since these things have some human DNA and have an exoskeleton, I reasoned that its endoskeleton, if it even had one, would be either brittle or thin or both. I was right on all accounts except one," Loyd said turning back to the swarmling. "It didn't have a brain so much as it had an automatic life support system and remote-control system. Of which I broke both."

The youngling stared up at Loyd as it struggled to understand the big words he had used, to explain what he had just done.

Loyd turned back and looked down at the confused face of the younglings and sighed. "I used its eye to break its skull."

The youngling nodded and ran off to get back to work.

Loyd muttered to himself. "Try and explain anything and everyone thinks I've been a scientist my whole life. That shit only started three months ago!"

Several heads turned as Loyd cried out but they quickly got back to work as he collected his mask and got to work himself.

The damage from the swarmling was minor at worst. The piece of metal it had crashed through was just there to hold the crystal beams in place as they were welded together. Several younglings were already pulling the plate off now that it was evident the welds had finished setting. A crane was preparing to put another part of the bucket wheel excavator into place as another swarmling charged through the dust and crashed into the part.

The swarmling was skewered by one of the many beams that made up the part as it collapsed into itself under its own weight.

Loyd glared at the pile of debris as the younglings started getting to work on putting the part back together.

Sarah walked up behind him, piloting one of the newer swarm-type CTAS. "So, we missed a major portion of their forces with our orbital bombardment and they've had nearly twenty years to get used to the sandstorms. What's your plan B?" She asked, disconnecting from the CTAS and walking over to stand next to Loyd.

"Nuclear annihilation. That was my plan B."

"Are you insane?! Do you have any idea how long that would take to get enough radioactive material?! And just refining it would take as long as it does to safely mine it, if not longer!"

"You asked."

"And I regret doing so," Sara admitted, stunned at what Loyd had just said. "I'm afraid to ask, but what was plan C?"

"I didn't have one. It was either we killed this thing with fire or we nuked it from orbit, glassing the planet in the process," Loyd stated coldly.

"If we couldn't take back the planet then they couldn't have it either? That what you were going for?" Sara asked a glint of intrigue in her eye.

"Roughly. Now let's get to work setting up a better defense system than that wall of sand that just seems to act as cover for the swarmlings," Loyd said, cracking his knuckles and turning towards one of the crawlers.

Sara followed closely behind him. "What do you have in mind?"

"I mentioned glassing the planet, didn't I? Well that requires the sand to have a decent amount of silicon and metal in it. So, what happens if we spread metal fillings throughout the sand storm and add a bigger electrical charge to the storm? Why not upgrade the storm's electromagnetic field? That seemed to confuse the swarm during the invasion so why wouldn't it work here?"

"Because in order to get that much metal into the sand storm would take more than our current stockpile!" Sara protested.

"No, it wouldn't. It would only take about a third of it and we can use the metal we already dispersed around the landing site. We already used them to make the storm so why not add them to it?" Loyd asked.

"Are you talking about the tether fragments?" Sara asked a gleeful tone in her voice.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Loyd answered. "We just need to create an electromagnetic laser to pull them out of the ground and add them to the storm."

"So, how can I help?"

"I need you to be the person who pilots the aircraft once I get the laser array repaired and retrofitted with the magnetic laser. Think of it like a tractor beam," Loyd said smiling.

Sara smiled at him as he rushed through the airlock and towards the hangar where the fighter was currently being repaired after the fight with the mutant Crystalid chancellor. She knew something was on his mind but she wouldn't pester him about it. She had plenty of things to worry about as it was. She was planning on telling Loyd about it soon anyways.

xX across two continents and an ocean Xx

"What do you mean you are having trouble controlling the swarmlings?! It is only a dust storm!" the Prime Sentient thundered, shattering the ice that had formed around it.

"It is an evil dust storm that grows stronger as the enemy builds its machines. We can only delay their efforts until the storm subsides or we get the relayer closer to them," the Advisor chirped as it danced across the ice so as not to get crushed.

"Then move the relayer faster! Send everything we have at them! If they build their machine, it may cut our link to the swarmlings entirely! Do you know what happens if they can accomplish that?! They will have killed us before they even get close to us!"

More ice shattered as the Prime Sentient continued to thunder to the Advisors. A small earthquake dislodged something from the ice further south, that shined brightly in the dim sunlight.

It caught the attention of one of the Advisors who sent a pair of flying swarmlings to investigate.